Gertraud grew up in Germany, but she has lived here for 43 years; 40 of them in Grand Junction.  She spent many of those years being a Mom.  She also did some substitute teaching with an emergency certificate, because there were, at that time, no substitute teachers for German in the valley.

After 22 years of marriage, divorce happened.  She then went to college for the first time to become a Radiation Technologist.  Gertraud reports that attending college when you are 50 is fun and she loved her job and loved working with people.  She has always done lots of volunteering at her church.  She continues to work on learning Spanish, which included spending 6 weeks in Costa Rica teaching English three times a week at an elementary school.  Gertraud re-married 15 years ago and retired at the age of 60.  This caused such guilt that she immediately became a patient volunteer for Hospice, feeling that she had to contribute somewhere.

Gertraud still volunteers for Hospice, does a lot of gardening, reading, hiking, cross-country skiing and quite a bit of traveling with her husband.  She has been to every continent except Antarctica, with Papua, New Guinea being one of the most unusual places she has visited.  Being a Spellbinder and a Wine-maker were added to the list not too long ago and, hopefully, she will be making cheese before too long!  She adds, "Oh, did I mention I also bake our own bread and love to cook?"

She has been a Spellbinder for about 2 years and being a storyteller is something she had been wanting to do for a long time, but never quite got around to.  She loves it!!

She has some favorite stories, but she tries to add at least 2-3 new stories every year, mostly for her own interest.  She currently tells to six 5th grade classes.

Gertraud says she is so new to Spellbinders she does not have any words of wisdom to share about storytelling, but every time she leaves a school building she smiles most of the way home because it is so much fun!  I can definitely relate to that feeling!  In the immortal words of another Spellbinder, Anne Saunders, "You should have to pay to have this much fun!"  I agree, but hope no one takes that literally and starts charging!

Thanks Gertraud for sharing your story!  I'm thinking wine and cheese parties might be in our future!

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 At our May workshop Sally Matchett shared a delightful story, "The King's Ears" from the book Stories of Hope and Spirit by Dan Keding.  I always enjoy hearing Sally tell a story, but this one was particularly enjoyable!  There are quite a few good stories in this book.  They are folktales from Eastern Europe.  I've told "The Prince Who Married a Frog" and "100 Children" and all my classes requested that these be told again. 

I shared information about a few stories from the Hispanic culture which were requested by a few of the third graders I told stories to.  I shared the story of El Cucuy by Joe Hayes.  It was a big hit and I got a lot of "stories" after the story about where and when they had first heard the story.  The originally requested story, La Llorona also by Joe Hayes.  This story is a legend that has many variations but has it's roots in the Hispanic culture.  It is about the "Weeping Woman" spirit who is condemned to roam the earth (mostly near large bodies of water) because in a fit of jealousy and rage she threw her children into the river.  There are quite a few versions, but Joe Hayes' version is probably the best.  It is suited for older children due to the topic, but my third grade Hispanic students had heard the story quite a few times.  We discussed how parents might use stories like this to keep their children away from dangerous places like large bodies of water.  I had also discussed the story with the teacher beforehand to be sure it was OK. 

The next workshop will be held August 12th at 9:00 a.m. at the library.  The Flintstone building where we usually met is there no more so our meeting will be in the conference room on the lower level at the main library from now on.  Don't miss it!  See you there!!

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